movies

When I published my review of Sizzle yesterday, I felt like adding a reluctant-parent-disciplinarian-esque "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you" qualifier. Although I felt that Randy Olson's heart was in the right place, I just didn't have many positive things to say about his new movie, and I wasn't too excited about the prospect of writing such a negative review. But, since I had been recruited--like so many others--to participate in this science blogosphere-wide experiment before seeing the movie, I went along grudgingly. Fortunately for me, various events today have helped…
Today, science bloggers from across the web (and particularly here at ScienceBlogs) are reviewing Sizzle, a new film by Randy Olson, maker of Flock of Dodos. Sizzle, billed as a "global warming comedy" is part mockumentary and part documentary, and in that sense is difficult to pin down. And, intentionally or not, this confusion emerges as a defining characteristic throughout. In the movie, Randy Olson plays himself, a filmmaker who sets out to make a movie about global warming featuring climate scientists. There's trouble from the beginning, as the big movie producers won't fund a project…
Happy Sizzle Day! Today numerous bloggers from ScienceBlogs and elsewhere will be reviewing a new movie Sizzle directed by Randy Olson of Flock of Dodos fame. Sizzle is a documentary/mockumentary/comedy partly about the science of global warming, but more in my opinion about the nature of the global warming debate. I was fortunate enough to receive a pre-release copy of the film for review, and I can summarize in one sentence what I thought about it: Randy Olson gets it. By gets it, I mean that he understands that there are two levels to the global warming debate. The first level is a…
I'm not sure what to make of Randy Olson's newest movie, Sizzle. One reason is that the first half of the movie is weak. Much of the humor is well, not funny. Yes, there are a couple funny moments, but it reminds me of those Saturday Night Live skits that are funny for the first thirty seconds, and by two minutes have just gone on for too long. If nothing else, it makes one appreciate that what Michael Moore does in his documentaries (whether you love them or hate them) is really difficult. The second half of the movie is more engaging, and it does ask an important question: why do the…
To put it mildly, this summer's crop of films has been a disappointment. Out of the handful of films I've seen I leave most going "Eh, it was alright," picking over the story I just saw to find something that made the $10 ticket price worthwhile. Not so with Wall-E. Even though there is almost no dialogue at all in the film ("Wall-e," "Eve," and "Directive" are the most commonly used words) it is one of the best pieces of cinema I think I have ever seen. I laughed more than at any recent comedy and at certain points I almost teared up; as I am concerned Wall-E is the best movie I've seen in…
If you like bad b-movies featuring clunky cgi dinosaurs it has been a good summer so far. First there was gratuitous silliness of Aztec Rex; Close on it's tail, though, is 100 Million B.C. (not to be confused with the recent big-screen cheese fest 10,000 B.C. or the classic One Million Years B.C.). The film looks like someone dropped a couple of seasons of Stargate, a copy of The Lost World, a few issues of The War That Time Forgot, and Michael Gross in a blender and hit "Gooify";
I'm not much of a fan of the Walking With... series/Dinosaur Planet/When Dinosaurs Roamed America documentary format. (And don't get me started on the Chased by... and Prehistoric Park stuff.) The visuals are ok and it's hard to say no to reconstructions of some of my favorite prehistoric creatures, but most of the time I just end up being bored. I want to know about the science and hear what paleontologists have to say, not see a "Just so story," and I'm sorry to say that the IMAX film Sea Monsters falls into the same, dull storytelling mode. The film starts out with a group of "…
Behind-the-scenes footage of Stan Winston Studios during the making of Jurassic Park III. You can see Stan here and there throughout.With Indiana Jones IV completed and out in theaters, I started to wonder when Jurassic Park IV might appear (it's presently slated to be released next year). The special effects in the original film look just as good to me now as they did when I first saw the film in a Florida movie theater, and the work of Stan Winston's studio on all the Jurassic Park films has kept me going back to watch the movies even when the storylines and acting started to get a bit…
During a promotional interview for the creationist propaganda piece Expelled, Ben Stein asserted that "science leads to killing people." In the new film The Happening, by contrast, toxins released by plants cause people to off themselves in any number of stomach-turning ways, but the M. Night Shyamalan film might have more in common with Expelled than can be surmised from the previews. There's a bit of discussion about some statements that actor Mark Wahlberg makes at the beginning of the film (Marky Mark plays a science teacher) having to do with evolution. The case the some anti-evolution…
Although I have no interest whatsoever in seeing The Happening and I'm not particularly enthused about the new Incredible Hulk, I couldn't help but observe this years' (so-far mediocre) crop of summer movies features a few scientists as heroes. First there was archaeologist Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and yesterday audiences could see Edward Norton take up the role of fictional scientist Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk ("Doc Bruce Banner, Pelted by gamma rays, Turned into the Hulk. Ain't he unglamorous!"). While not featuring a heroic scientist…
In 1864 Jules Verne published the book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and although the book is a classic the various TV & film versions (1959, 1967, 1976, 1977, 1989, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003) are anything but. This summer will see the release of another interpretation of Verne's novel, this time starring Brendan Fraser; After seeing the trailer for the new film in the theater, I had to turn to my wife and ask "But where's Gertrude the duck?" Although the show involved time/dimensional portals, both iterations of "Land of the Lost" involved undiscovered mysteries underground…
Ever since it appeared as an "adult" spinoff of Doctor Who, I've had a love-hate relationship with Torchwood. The first season was about as uneven as anything I've ever seen, ranging from a truly execrable (and, even worse, unforgivably stupidly and badly written) "homage" to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Countrycide) that ranks among the worst hours of television to which I've ever subjected myself to a handful of pretty darned good episodes (Out of Time, Captain Jack Harkness), with a whole lot of mediocre episodes in between. This season was generally more consistent, but a lot of problems…
I wonder when they're going to stage a similar commercial with Steve Carrell... Speaking of Harrison Ford, the actor was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. Ford was elected to the position because of the attention his character Indiana Jones has brought to the discipline of archaeology. When I was younger part of my desire to become a paleontologist was due to the influence of the Indiana Jones films (I used to wear a brown fedora everywhere. In fact, I just bought a new one), and hopefully the exploits of the fictional character will spark a…
It's Memorial Day weekend here in the States. For those of us lucky enough not to be on call, working retail, or otherwise being forced to go to work, it means three days away from work. Although I'll be working a bit on various protocols and papers, it nonetheless means three days away from the cancer center. However, even with the work, the lawn work, and the high school graduation party I have to head to, I should still have time to check out Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I had been hoping to go tonight; so I thought I'd solicit opinions from those of you who've…
So I saw Indiana Jones last night, and in spite of what I am about to say I really did enjoy it. My random musings are under the fold, but I will warn you that I spill a good bit of the plot. If you are not interested in knowing the plot in advance, you should come back later. In a movie where the ultimate goal is to find a temple in the Amazon populated by trans-dimensional aliens -- aliens who then proceed to vanish from existence taking a large portion of the Amazon with them, it is amusing to note that the things I found most unrealistic about this movie were as follows. 1) Shia LeBouf…
Check out this video of synchronizing metronomes...
Over at Darwinian Conservatism, Larry Arnhart recently wrote a post about how Michael Behe, the scientific "star" of the ID movement, seems to have fallen out of favor with the Disco Institute. Almost a year ago his book The Edge of Evolution was published, yet it seemed to have little impact within ID circles (or anywhere else). Behe's previous book (Darwin's Black Box) was a major hit, making it all the more shocking that Behe was absent from the recent creationist propaganda piece Expelled. If you've been paying attention, though, you'll know that Behe was interviewed for the film. Don't…
Today I've got a human osteology exam, so while I'm trying to make sure I know all my processes, foramina, and sutures things are going to be a bit light here. Still, I've got a few items of interest to unload here before trying to cram more of White's Human Osteology into my brain; The next edition of the Boneyard is coming up this Saturday and will appear at Familiarity Breeds Content. Get your submissions in to me or Nick soon! Two weeks after that the carnival will be back here with a special edition where participants will have a chance to win some paleontology books from my own library…
After the success of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the minds behind the franchise were in a bit of a fix. Tyrannosaurus and "Velociraptor"* had the run of the fictional islands for the past two movies; something new was needed to up the ante. The decision was made to make Spinosaurus the new villain in Jurassic Park III, the strange theropod being said to possess an 8-foot-long skull and stretch 60 feet from the tip of its crocodile-like snout to the end of its tail by the creative team. As if this weren't enough, the writers of the film had Spinosaurus kick the tar of of Tyrannosaurus,…
Heh. Before I abandon the disgusting piece of fecal matter that is Ben Stein's Expelled! for (hopefully) a long, long time, if not forever, I can't resist pointing out that it's good to see that at least someone totally gets it and sees through the lies. It's even better to see it coming from a hometown publication Real Detroit Weekly (you'll need to scroll almost all the way to the bottom of the web page to get past all the other movie reviews). A couple of gems: In addition to the standard creationist claptrap, Ben Stein argues that there is a link between acceptance of evolution and…